[Q] Weird battery issue, Razr i, after Jelly Bean

bengtan

Senior Member
Mar 20, 2013
370
597
0
Perth
Hi all,

I have weird battery issue with my Razr i xt890 and I'd like some help. I have tried googling for information, but there's too much noise and I can't find anything suitable.

I'm asking on this site because I know the people on here are really knowledgeable.

My Razr i (with Jelly Bean) seems to have erratic battery readings. Sometimes it'll drop to 6%, and then go up to 90%, and jump around to points in between. I have even seen it drop to 1% and then go up to 6% (or something like that).

Needless to say, this makes the phone unusable because I don't know when it's on low battery so I can charge it. Furthermore, twice, it has reported low battery and then automatically shut itself down.

I hope someone can help with this, because I'm really stuck. I bought this phone overseas, and I don't really want to send it back overseas for warranty repairs.

So, some history.

Before the issue:

This is a stock Razr i, running Retail GB software. When I bought it, it was running 81.5.31002.Retail.en.GB 4.0.4. I upgraded to 81.5.39001.Retail.en.GB 4.0.4 and it's been running fine until this issue happened. I normally get about 4.5-5.5 days of battery before I recharge the phone.

This is stock software. No root. No bootloader unlock. No custom roms.

The issue:

I charged up my phone yesterday, and unplugged it from the charger at 100% battery. There was a notification that 91.2.29001.Retail.en.GB 4.1.2 was available. I selected 'Later' because I was busy at the time.

A bit later (maybe about an hour?), I went back to the phone and checked for updates, and selected to download the update. After it was downloaded, I noticed the battery was about 95%, and then I proceeded to install.

I figured 95% power should be sufficient to perform an upgrade.

The install took, maybe 10-15 minutes? At first glance, it seemed successful, but when the phone started up again, the battery reading was at 100%.

I distinctly remember thinking 'This is impossible. There's no way it could be 95% before the install, and 100% afterwards'.

I played around with the phone a bit (to try out Jelly Bean), and after a few minutes, the battery reading dropped to 60% or something.

That's when I knew something was wrong.

Since then, the phone battery reading has been erratic. If I plug it into a charger, it takes a few minutes and then shoots up to 100%. Unplug it, and it drops to a low level within minutes, and then goes up and down like a yo-yo. Twice, the phone went to a very low level, and then shut itself off.

I've tried various charging/unplugging cycles, and nothing has worked yet (Although I didn't have the patience to try an 8-hour charging cycle yet).

Please see the attached images to see what I mean.



The graphs are just bizarre.

I also did a factory reset (from the Privacy menu rather than 'recovery') but that didn't help.

At the moment, I haven't tried to root the phone or unlock the bootloader. I am still keeping the option of warranty open.

I can't think of a reason why this is happening. It doesn't seem to be a simple calibration or battery stats issue. I think the battery is working okay (because it was fine before the upgrade), just that the readings are wrong.

The phone is operating okay in all other respects. If I ignore the battery readings and the 'low battery' alerts, the phone continues to work ... except when it shuts itself down.

Another theory could be that ... because I upgraded without plugging the phone in, perhaps there was insufficient power during the upgrade and caused some corruption, and I have a faulty software/firmware? Not sure how I could test that though.

Any ideas, any one? Please?
 

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Lynneandrea

New member
Mar 20, 2013
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0
Jelly bean download issues

Hi, I have had exactly the same problem after downloading jelly bean. It even died when plugged in charging. As I had only had the phone for three weeks, I took it back to the shop, Phones 4 You, and they exchanged it for a new phone and told me not to download jelly bean until they let me know it's safe to do so. They said that it was a software problem. Prior to this the battery life was outstanding and I am very pleased with the phone. Phones 4 You gave me an excellent service.
 
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bengtan

Senior Member
Mar 20, 2013
370
597
0
Perth
Fixed!

For future readers ...

Someone on the motorola forums (see second reply on this thread) mentioned a possible solution which was to manually install the Jelly Bean version again. I decided to give this a try.

After some more research, I discovered that it should be possible to manually apply official Motorola (ie. OTA) updates using the stock bootloader (via the bootloader recovery feature). No unlocking, no root needed.

I gave this a try ... downloaded the software (keeping to the same version), placed it on an SD card, went to recovery and selected 'Updated from external card' (or something like that) and followed through ... and it has worked (Although this time I kept the phone connected to a usb cable throughout the upgrade). My battery readings are back to normal again. I didn't lose any data or apps as a result of this 'manual upgrade'.

And I am presumably still under warranty since I didn't root nor unlock the bootloader.

Other readers may consider trying this for themselves, however, I cannot guarantee that it will work for them. I can only say it worked for me.

Some references:

How to enter stock recovery in JB (razr i)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=38873652

(Apparently entering into stock recovery differs slightly between ICS and JB.)

The Unofficial Thread of Official OTA Updates
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2028814

I used the software package from the first post of this thread, labelled as 81.5.39001-91.2.29001.Retail.en.GB 4.0.4-4.1.2 (even though the filename is Blur_Version.81.5.39001.XT890.Retail.en.GB.zip).
 

mo976

Senior Member
Jun 17, 2008
1,144
1,170
0
Jerusalem Israel
I don't have the phone yet (supposed to get it tonight) but having read quite a bit it seems Moto suggests a factory reset after upgrading to JB in order to sort out battery drain etc. I think I saw it in the battery stats thread in RAZR i general.
 

Timbah

Member
Jan 20, 2010
36
5
0
I send my Razr I back to Germany (living in The Netherlands myself) yesterday! Had the same problem, only my battery get down to 0% all the time, so the phone shutsdown itself every 1 minute till 1 houre. (I'm from the topic: Auto shutdown (battery problem). I think i get my new one next week on wednesday. Dus the JB software manualy update works for more people?
 

flashsam

Senior Member
Dec 20, 2006
142
15
0
Leeds
I don't have the phone yet (supposed to get it tonight) but having read quite a bit it seems Moto suggests a factory reset after upgrading to JB in order to sort out battery drain etc. I think I saw it in the battery stats thread in RAZR i general.
I think the problems described in this thread are relating to strange battery spikes in percentage and not a general drain of battery.
The problem is that everyone seems to be different. Some people report these spikes, some people are reporting high drains (which turning off google now or factory reset seem to fix) and some people (luckily me!) have had no issues at all - just an even faster phone
 

bengtan

Senior Member
Mar 20, 2013
370
597
0
Perth
I did do a factory reset, though not immediately after the first JB upgrade. It didn't help.

I think describing this issue as battery drain or high battery usage is not quite correct. The battery is actually okay*, but the phone's indication of the battery capacity jumps all over the place (and sometimes causing automatic shutdown). I can see how it can be confused with battery drain though, especially if people only observe the reading going down (but didn't see the reading going up).

* At one point, I kept the phone screen on as an attempt to drain the battery. I got about 6 hours screen time (ignoring the intermittent battery low warnings) before I gave up.

Since I now have a phone with JB which is working, my guess is that this bug may not occur in all phones with JB. Instead, it seems to be triggered by something that happens during an upgrade.
 

kiwaiko

New member
Nov 2, 2010
2
0
0
OTA to JB on xt890 = battery problems

I think the problems described in this thread are relating to strange battery spikes in percentage and not a general drain of battery.
The problem is that everyone seems to be different. Some people report these spikes, some people are reporting high drains (which turning off google now or factory reset seem to fix) and some people (luckily me!) have had no issues at all - just an even faster phone
i have the same problem. factory reset did not help me and i feel i made a mistake i have choosen this phone.i had motorola mobiles before even bought one to my wife.i know that motorola has a conservative atittude.i thought giving them a last chance now i know it was a mistake:mad:
 

Apokalyptra

New member
Aug 26, 2016
1
0
0
Have you had any luck fixing your phone? I have the same problem since a few weeks ago. Bought a new battery and tried two calibration programs, but the issue persists.
 

cormie

Senior Member
Apr 26, 2010
237
12
0
This is very odd, I'm here after my dad has the same issue and it looks like I'm the 4th poster to report the issue within 50 days after the thread hadn't any replies for over 3 years! Did any of you recent posters resolve the issue? I had a spare Razr-i and my dad took it to a phone repair shop where they swapped both batteries and the issue was still the same with the other battery, so it seems it's nothing to do with the battery itself for all the posters here so far.

Was there some recent update that spiralled all the phones into the erratic behaviour recently I wonder?

I'm trying to advise my dad what to do:

Try fix the issue on his current phone and keep using relatively old tech phone
Use my spare phone (same type) and keep using relatively old tech phone and try sell old XT890 for parts
Upgrade to brand new phone with latest tech and do him for a few years longer than the XT890 would.

Any feedback appreciated!
 

dastu

Member
Apr 18, 2011
22
0
0
The issue flatened a bit now. After 2 weeks of brave usage the phone keeps the charge now normally with rare drops in between. So it's still not on an acceptable level but improved magically. I do not understand the physics of this behavior.
 

noiser9

New member
Oct 22, 2016
1
0
0
I'm having the same strange behaviour since yesterday!!

battery level drops when pluggin the charger,
after several minutes level is jumping to 100%.

whith unplugged charger, level in general inconsistent jumping up and down...!

could this be SW related? planned obsolescence?

edit: android 4.4.2. systemversion 990.43.74.XT890.Retail.en.EU
 
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Alvin Holler

Member
Nov 11, 2016
8
1
0
I have the same problem following an update to JB I don't even recall authorising :(

I'm now looking for a copy of the new firmware: 990.43.74.XT890.Retail.en.EU to try to resolve. If anyone knows where it can be found I'd be very grateful if you could point me in the right direction...
 

emdotdub

Member
Sep 9, 2011
38
12
0
Same problem here.
I bought a new battery. No changes.
I than did a complete wipe, unlocked the bootloader and installed CyanogenMod 11 (this one http://forum.xda-developers.com/razr-i/development/rom-unofficial-cyanogenmod-11-t2966855). No changes.
I than completely drained the battery (made sure of it) and left it on the charger over night. Now I don't get those weird spikes, the battery just drains really fast (about an hour an the phone is powering off).

Maybe I try a different ROM, or go back to KitKat
 

Hei Wiper

Member
Jan 19, 2017
5
0
1
I found this but I dunno how to use it ??
h t t p s : / / forum .xda-developers .com /showpost.php?p=69816145&postcount=39


android 4.4.2. systemversion 990.43.74.XT890.Retail.en.EU